Monday, October 1, 2012

What's next??

So, after you finish your proposal and the firework show is completed, what do you do next??
I think this - more than almost any other question - is what we get the most: "How do I get published?"

First step = Writing a book and then a proposal. Nothing big or anything. ;)

Second step = Start making contacts in the writing field. Betsy covered some of this in her post last Wednesday about going to conferences. I feel like we harp on this sometimes, but if you can do it, going to a conference is hands down the BEST thing you could ever do for your writing.

I'm pretty certain (correct me if I'm wrong, fellow Scribble Chicks!!) that all of us on here got published for the first time by a contact we created at a conference. They do work!! And even if they don't for you, they are SO fun.

Spoken like a true nerd. ;)

Third step? Prepare yourself for rejection.

Friends, there are very few (if any!) published authors who have never once had something rejected. Keep your chins up. Just because one publisher didn't like your proposal doesn't mean the next one will feel the same way. And just because one publisher asks you to dump the first 20 pages of your novel doesn't mean that you have to or should. Take notes, listen with an open heart and mind, but then go home and think through what seems right to you.

Note that you might be rinsing and repeating steps two and three for a while. Or even step one. My first proposal I wrote and passed around at a conference was for a book that will never seen the light of day. ;)

I'm still on the first part of writing a good book. You can hear all the authors say it's hard but it's still harder than I couldve imagined! I wrote one book, it'll never go anywhere. I'm trying for a second one. I actually have 3 seperste ideas I think are good, yay me! I like the security of having some of it planned. Ive noticed I can come up with an inciting incident & first plot point but after that things get foggy. *sigh* I have sagging middle problems before writing a first draft. Ugh! I guess thats an improvement over my first one that didn't have much of anything. Maybe soon I'll be like well I have trouble figuring out act 3?! Must. Keep. Trying.